


For Your Trials and Examinations

by B0REDER



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, Drama & Romance, F/M, Friendship, Humor, Romance, Teenage Drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:34:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 19,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23154100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/B0REDER/pseuds/B0REDER
Summary: Modern AU Byleth x Lysithea fic. When Lysithea enters the tenth grade in Garreg Mach, she learns she has to pass the exams at the end of the year to get into the Seiros diploma program. Byleth is a final-year student who tutors underclassmen. Starts from high school and continues in university. Also heavily involves the Golden Deer students and their antics.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth & Lysithea von Ordelia, My Unit | Byleth/Lysithea von Ordelia
Comments: 10
Kudos: 53





	1. First Day

Lysithea let out a sigh.

Her view was met with a line of trees and buildings whizzing past as she leaned her elbow below the glass pane she was staring out of.

It wasn’t what she was seeing that made her anxious; it was the knowledge of where she was headed. She’s been to school before, of course. But this was a more prominent first day of school because it would be her first day at one of the most prestigious schools in the region; the institution of Garreg Mach. It was located in the center of Fodlan, and provided both a secondary school and a university for those who graduated. Students from all over would attend the institution in the hopes for a stellar education facilitated by the best professors and faculty members of not only Fodlan, but neighboring regions as well. Nevertheless, this meant that enrollments were slim relative to its size and getting in was… difficult to say the least.

Lysithea did not have to take the entrance exams, fortunately, only because her grades were so high from her previous school. Paying the tuition was also not a problem for her seeing as she came from a family that can only be described as coming from the higher side of the socio-economic spectrum. In fact, a sizeable number of students that attended Garreg Mach came from affluent families. This could be attributed to the simple fact that most families of such status would only accept their students going there and nowhere else due to its acclaimed reputation. That is not to say less economically-advantaged students could not attend the school however – many exceptional individuals from modest families were accepted as well, and were given leeway with regard to payments.

It’s been around twenty minutes since she left her house, accompanied by both her parents with her father driving, despite Lysithea’s complaints that it was unnecessary. Garreg Mach wasn’t that far from where they lived, but it was far enough for them to consider her staying at one of the dormitories.

“ _I hope I can study without too much trouble_ ” Lysithea thought to herself.

Her daydreaming was cut short by the sound of the car engine dying and the steady feeling of motion coming to a halt.

“Well, we’re here.” Her father, Mr. Ordelia piped up. “You excited?”

“If I’m being honest, not really” the white-haired girl said in response.

“Aw I’m sure you’ll be fine, sweetie. Don’t worry about a thing.” Her mother turned around from her seat in the front planted a kiss on her forehead.

And with that she reluctantly opened the car door and hopped out, one arm clutched on the strap of her shoulder bag. It was a different bag to the one she usually carried to her old school – a backpack that was visibly bright pink under the sun – because she insisted on getting one that would make her seem more mature. She reached into it to grab her school itinerary, which included a map and information about where her classroom was located, along with her schedule for the day.

Apparently, how it worked in Garreg Mach was that you were put into one of three ‘houses’; each of which was comprised of one homeroom class. Each year students would continue to be in the same house unless they decided, with approval, to transfer houses. Lysithea had been assigned to the “Golden Deer” house which was located on the first floor.

She made her way past the gated entrance of Garreg Mach after being greeted by two guards and was amazed at what she saw. She caught sight of some of the buildings peering over the trees on the way, but now that she was inside she could see the educational institution in all its glory. Huge towers that reached into the clouds, wide steel doors, and faculty buildings that were quite archaic in design, but had some modern touches here and there. It sort of looked like a school from one of those movies about wizards she watched.

After passing the expansive stone courtyards, she was able to find where her class was supposed to be. Beside the open doors that led into the classroom was a large golden insignia with the silhouette of a horned deer. Lysithea looked at it curiously for a moment, then walked into the class.

As soon as she stepped foot in the room she could already hear the audible chitter-chatter that was going on inside. Class had yet to start, so the students that were there were using the time to get to know each other.

“Hi! And you are?” Lysithea was approached by a girl who had long pink hair tied into twin tails that draped down the sides of her head.

Before Lysithea was able to respond, the girl chimed in again.

“Oh, how rude of me! I forgot to introduce myself, sorry for that. My name is Hilda Valentine Goneril, and I’m looking forward to being your classmate.”

“Lysithea von Ordelia. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” the shorter girl replied as she shook Hilda’s hand.

“Say, you didn’t happen to run into who’s supposed to be our teacher on the way here did you? I just wanna know when class is gonna start is all.”

“No, I’m afraid. All I know is that his name is Professor Hanne-“

“Good morning class! I do apologize if I am tardy. I hope that isn’t the case.” A voice that belonged to an older man wearing a monocle and brown clothing greeted the room as the said man hurriedly walked into view of the students.

Those were still left standing quickly found their seats and Lysithea took the spot nearest to her, which just happened to be next to Hilda. Professor Hanneman’s arrival cut short Lysithea’s chance to get to know the rest of the students that she would be sharing a class with for this year and the next three years for the moment. Not that she cared that much. It is also worth noting that in Fodlan it took students until the thirteenth grade for them to graduate, which meant that most were only able to obtain their diploma at a later age.

There were around twenty students in the class but the ones that stood out to Lysithea were: a blue-haired girl with sullen eyes situated at the back of the room, a burly male whose shirt was clearly too tight for him, another girl who had her hair shorter than most boys did, a nervous bespectacled teenager who carried a large sketchbook, and a tall boy with neat violet hair who looked like he cared about his outward appearance. In particular, there was also a tan-skinned individual with jet black hair who didn’t seem like he originated from Fodlan.

Hanneman set down his laptop and connected it to an adapter for a projector.

“Students, I would like to begin by saying welcome to Garreg Mach! It must be exciting for you all to be officially studying at one of the most prestigious institutions in Fodlan. My name is Hanneman von Essar so you can address me as Professor Hanneman or Mr. Hanneman. I will be your homeroom teacher for this school year. I am eager to get to know each and every one of you, but there will be time for introductions later so pardon the formalities for now. As per what is expected of me, I will be running through the class syllabus and how things work in Garreg Mach. I believe you know about the Seiros diploma program, yes? At the end of your school year here, all of you will be taking exams that will determine whether or not you are eligible for this program. These exams will include special subjects that are exclusive Garreg Mach so there will be many learning experiences new to you, I’m sure. In particular, we are putting an emphasis on social studies as of late, so if you were part of a natural science-based stream in your old school, you will need to adapt accordingly. Oh don’t worry, I’m sure….”

Hanneman’s voice trailed off after Lysithea heard the latter part of his blather. All she focused on was the fact that there was to be an emphasis on social studies in the school. She had always excelled in her studies. In fact, she had consistently been the top of her class since she was little. But that was in the natural sciences. She was a prodigy in learning everything technical and set in stone, or at least things that had an objective answer to them. Her previous schools had subjects related to humanities, but they were usually only one or two and relegated with a less important weight because she had always taken the science stream in her academic endeavors. 

“ _Looks like I’ll have to work harder.”_ Lysithea mused.

After their morning classes which comprised of Hanneman droning on about what they were going to learn in their time at Garreg Mach, they were dismissed for break and Lysithea was able to meet some of the other students and learn their names – particularly the ones she thought were interesting earlier.

“What I’m worried about is what our teacher said regarding the emphasis on learning social studies subjects. I’ve never been an expert on them, seeing as I came from a science-focused school.” Lysithea expressed with concern to the small group that had formed.

“Oh it’s not the social studies I’m worried about. I had those in my old school. It’s the difficulty of the subjects Mr. Hanneman was talking about. They sound like a lot of work!” Hilda added.

“You two worry too much! All I’m thinking about is checking out the menu at the cafeteria! I say we head over there and we can talk about what worries us later.” The large-framed boy named Raphael said with a loud voice.

The rest of the group, which included the two named Ignatz and Marianne who had mostly been silent, agreed with him and they left for lunch.

Later on, Hilda informed Lysithea of a final-year student who was willing to teach and help underclassmen of the subjects that students normally struggled with. She had heard of him from her big brother, who was the same year as him.

Lysithea, never having needed a tutor before, was initially hesitant on the idea but came to the conclusion that she would at least try to join.

“Great! I’ll invite some of our other friends that we made earlier because I’ve heard he’s only willing to teach so many. Don’t want other people finding out and taking up all the spots do we? He is teaching for free, after all.”


	2. Golden Deer

The clamor of the canteen was something Lysithea hoped she wouldn’t have to get used to. It was the second day of classes, and she was sitting with Hilda and Marianne at one of the smaller cafeteria tables that filled the spacious room.

“So. I managed to get the contact of the guy who’s supposed to be able to tutor us for free from my big brother. Apparently his name is Byleth?” Hilda told the two others who were sitting opposite from her.

“I haven’t messaged him or anything yet, since I’m still not sure about how all this works or who’ll be joining us for the lesson.”

“Hey, what are you three chatting about?” the newly appointed class president, Claude, approached them from the side with the vice president Lorenz trailing behind him. Class roles were being assigned earlier that morning and only the two of them had volunteered for the position of leading the class. Personally, Lysithea didn’t have much interest engaging in anything outside of her studies.

“How gauche. Excuse me ladies, but do forgive Claude’s behavior. He’s never been one for politeness.” Lorenz voiced, with clear contempt for the person he was referring to.

Hilda raised an eyebrow.

“Hi you two. First of all, the answer to your question, _Claude_ , is that it’s none of your business.” The twin-tailed girl said with a smile.

“And second, why does it seem like you two know each other? I mean before coming to Garreg Mach of course.”

Claude spoke up before Lorenz was able to. “Let’s just say my family and his have been known to butt heads on occasion. Not just politically, mind you. But in matters of business as well.”

“Hmm yes. As much as I deign to admit it, one can say Claude has been a rival of sorts, even in our old school.”

“Hey your words, not mine.”

Before the two could bicker pointlessly further, Lysithea interrupted them.

“You know you could have just said that right? That you went to the same school I mean. Also, was there something you two needed? If you don’t mind, the three of us were in the middle of talking about something.”

Marianne stayed silent and merely looked down at her food. Meanwhile, Claude just smiled and turned his attention to the petite girl.

“Lysithea, right? How old are you again? You seem a little young to be studying here.” He wryly remarked.

“Excuse me, I’m just as old as the rest of you are! Well even if I was a little younger, the difference is negligible! And I believe age is irrelevant when it comes to maturity – something I think you do well to exemplify.” Lysithea retorted, with furrowed eyebrows clearly showing her annoyance.

“Haha easy now! Just messing with you guys a bit. Anyway, I think I’ll catch you guys later. Got some important matters to attend to.” And with that, Claude winked at them and left the bunch.

“I suppose I will be taking my leave as well. I will see you all in class.” Lorenz followed suit.

The three girls watched them walk away and then returned to look at each other.

“Oookay, well now we can get back to business.” Hilda verbalized in an attempt to get the conversation back to where they were before the pair distracted them.

“So you’re not thinking of inviting those two to join the lesson are you?” Lysithea questioned.

“Nah, I’m not so sure I can trust them yet. What about you Marianne? You know anyone we can invite to join us?”

Marianne looked up from her food briefly but turned her head back down.

“No. I’m afraid I’ve only talked to you two and the boys we met yesterday.... Oh and Leonie.” She spoke in a soft tone.

“Well I guess it’ll be just the three of us then. Others can join later.” As she said that Hilda opened up her phone and made her way to the contact her brother gave her.

“Strange, he doesn’t have a profile picture. Is this the right contact? Whatever, I’m gonna message him.”

Lysithea crossed the table and scooted next to Hilda to see what she was typing.

_Hey! Byleth, right? I’m Hilda Valentine Goneril and my brother told me you were helping students with their subjects. My friends and I were talking and are kinda interested in learning from you. So, how about it?_

“Aaand send. There. We’ll have to wait for his reply. Though, I kinda wonder what he looks like?”

Lysithea simply shrugged. What he looked like was one of the last thing she cared about – all she wanted to know was whether or not he was able to help them learn the humanities subjects that they had. With their classes officially under way, there was no time for messing around and lackluster results. Lysithea and the rest of the Golden Deer tenth grade’s classes comprised of history, psychology, economics, philosophy, one natural science subject of their choice, and mathematics. Though she loved all science subjects, Lysithea picked chemistry because that was the one she always scored the highest marks in. She was also great at math, so those two subjects were nothing to worry about. The problem was the rest – while she was shrewd and capable of thinking critically, it was always a bother to formulate theoretical answers. Yet, even now she was still doubtful about this whole tutoring plan. She’d have to take part in the lesson to believe it was worth her time.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

When the break ended, everyone made their way back to class. For the Golden Deer house, this meant it was time for history class taught by Hanneman. Needless to say, this was a tedious 2 hours of hearing the older professor ramble on about how a distant war in the past came to be. It was getting difficult to stay awake, so the students collectively breathed a sigh of relief when the next break rolled around.

“Any news yet, Hilda?”

Though Lysithea wasn’t 100% onboard with this whole tutoring idea yet, she wanted to get this trial period over and done with already so she could plan for other alternatives for studying social studies in case this plan didn’t work out.

Hilda turned to see her friend and lit up a cheery face. “As a matter of fact, yes! Byleth must have responded during his break. The good news is that he’s willing to teach us. And he can start today after classes, actually. I was thinking since we’re all staying at the dorms here we wouldn’t have anything better to do anyway.”

“The fact that you mentioned good news means that there’s bad news, isn’t there? Well what is it?” Lysithea asked plainly.

“Oh, I wouldn’t call it bad news really. It’s just that he said other students had already asked him as well so we’ll be joining them.”

“I suppose that’s fine. We’ll have to tell Marianne as well.”

The two continued to converse about what would be in store for them in the lessons by Byleth and afterwards, the school day passed by eventually without anything noteworthy happening.

“He said to meet in one of the student activity rooms. Man Garreg Mach really does have everything – a library, a big canteen, sports facilities…” Hilda chattered excitedly to the two girls walking with her, but mostly to herself. 

As Lysithea and Marianne followed her, the shorter girl tried to spark up conversation.

“So Marianne, I’m curious – why did you choose to attend Garreg Mach? Moreover, why do you think you need this lesson?”

“Oh… I didn’t. My adoptive father sent me here. And as for why I’m joining this lesson… well… I just decided to follow you and Hilda…” Marianne answered with a voice barely audible enough for Lysithea to hear.

“That sounds quite dismal Marianne. Surely there is some volition on your part for both those things I mentioned.” Lysithea chided.

“Ah… I don’t know…”

Hilda cut through the rather gloomy state of the conversation by exclaiming their arrival.

“Okay! So I think this is the room he was talking about. I wonder who else is joining?”

As the three girls pushed open the door to make their way in, Hilda got her answer almost immediately – causing her excitement to drain slowly from her face.

“Well, if it isn’t my three favorite girls from our class. Color me surprised. Sorry Leonie.”

From beside Hilda, Lysithea caught sight of who was in the room. She saw Claude leaning back on his chair with his legs crossed on the table while Lorenz looked at him disapprovingly, Raphael, who was beaming from ear to ear, Ignatz who looked up from sketching on his book, and Leonie who flashed a mean look at Claude only for him to return her glare with a wink.

“Hey! You guys are joining too? That’s awesome!” Raphael pumped his fist in the air.

“Hahah, how great to see you guys here...” Hilda uttered through her teeth.

The girls then found another table to sit in and wondered where their supposed tutor was. And just on cue, an older teal-haired student wearing a black hoodie opened the door with a laptop in his arm.

“Good afternoon. I hope I didn’t keep you all waiting.” The senior known as Byleth, who most of them were seeing for the first time, spoke with a monotonous voice and an unchanging expression.

“Took you long enough, cousin. What would Uncle Jeralt think?” Leonie crossed her arms together and sat back in her chair.


	3. War of Heroes

Byleth, whoever he was, was nothing like Lysithea expected. For one thing, she had expected him to look a lot more like someone… bookish. Someone more like Ignatz, for example. Instead he had unkempt, but not overly messy hair, a sharp mien about his face, and somewhat piercing eyes despite his inexpressiveness. He would have fit right in with the popular jocks who were on the sports teams. In short, despite a mental barrier of denial, he was more handsome than she had thought he would be.

Lysithea quickly brushed those thoughts away as she reminded herself that that wasn’t what she was here for. Those kinds of thoughts belonged to other girls who allowed themselves the luxury to indulge in such frivolous musings. No, all she was here for was to study to the best of her ability and that was that.

Before the tutoring session started, Byleth asked each student to say their names one by one so he would be able to remember them.

“Lysithea von Ordelia. Please do not forget it.” The studious younger teenager replied when it was her turn.

Other than his appearance, another surprising thing was how he taught. Today the students came to a consensus to study history first as it was one of the classes they first encountered and, promptly found deathly boring. Instead of giving a general lecture, Byleth drew a map on the white board depicting one of the famous battles they were learning about. It was a sprawling scenario – with huge forces on either side of a broad valley complete with different areas of terrain and avenues to pass through. He then assigned each student in the room to a certain important figure in said battle.

“Raphael. You are Gautier in this scenario. You are leading the cavalry charge from the southeast. However, you are facing a line of pikemen on that side of the battlefield. What do you do?”

“I charge through of course! They’re no match for my muscles!” Raphael boomed.

“You push forward past their ranks but not without suffering massive casualties. Such casualties prove to be significant and your battalion cannot stay in the fight much longer, forcing your division to retreat which leaves the other forces on your side vulnerable.”

“Oh… Aw…”

Looking at Ignatz next, he asked where he would lead his theoretical battalion of archers to fire first – the enemy archers at the back, the frontline where both their footmen and the enemy’s were clashing, or an attempt to fire at a command squad with high-ranking military members. The boy answered that he would go for the archers, because he wouldn’t want to risk hitting his own troops. Wrong. The fourth option, Byleth said, was to wait and see if there were any crucial and feasible targets – which would appear soon after in the form of wyvern riders coming from the side.

Byleth then turned his gaze to Lysithea.

“Saint Cethleann. What action will you take against their forces? You have a magic battalion and the forces surrounding your leader have greatly weakened while a sizeable number of enemy troops are approaching to take advantage of the situation.”

Lysithea thought for a moment and responded. “Since I can’t rely on the current units protecting Seiros, I will have to prevent the enemy’s advance with a magic attack with the use of a battalion, like resonant lightning.”

The senior student looked at her inquisitively for a bit before speaking. “While that would deal with the current threat, you would still have the problem of more enemy troops coming with the purpose of defeating your commander with only feeble soldiers on the defense. Seeing as Cethleann specialized in healing magic, it would have been best if you focused your effort on re-strengthening the lines around Seiros for a more long-term solution.”

Annoyed, Lysithea barked “B-but! I don’t see the point of you asking all of this! How is this going to help us learn? What’s more, magic isn’t even real!”

“Putting yourselves into the perspective of the integral figures in this battle will allow you to understand the role they played much better, as well as how their decisions impacted the outcome of the battle. Knowing the ins and outs of the ten elites, the saints, and Seiros are important parts of your curriculum is it not? History class in Garreg Mach isn’t just about memorizing. And to correct you – magic _was_ real until after the war, upon which the Goddess stripped the land of all magic in anger. Since all magic was gone to history, mankind has had to industrialize to replace what was lost.” Byleth explained calmly.

Lysithea was still frustrated, but after hearing Byleth’s answer she slowly came to see that what he was saying made sense. It did make it easier to understand the pivotal points of the important battle when you had to conceptualize what happened. Also, it was much less boring than Hanneman’s lecture earlier that day.

The rest of the tutoring class proceeded the same way, and the Golden Deer students managed to have an engaging discussion on the events of the historical battle. It was the first time they felt interested in learning a subject. Before they realized, more than 2 hours had gone and past.

“Wow, it’s getting late huh? We should probably get dinner or something.” Claude remarked.

Raphael agreed with him eagerly, as did the others.

“Yeah, I’m starving! I wonder if the cafeteria’s still open at this time.”

“You gonna join us, Teach?” It seems that the president of the Golden Deer class already made up a nickname for their tutor.

Byleth shook his head. “I’m afraid I have other matters to attend to. Perhaps another time.”

While the small class complained, eventually the group parted ways with the tutor as he said his goodbye and made their way over to the canteen.

“Yeesh, and he doesn’t have a profile picture why? Most guys would plaster a face like that all over their social media.” Hilda said as soon as they were out of earshot.

 _‘Of course_ that’s what Hilda goes to first’ Lysithea thought to herself. Unlike Hilda, she had the dignity to not care about looks, or at least not have it the first thing to be brought up. In truth however, she had went to the same thoughts when seeing Byleth for the first time as well.

“Speaking of, why doesn’t he have any social media at all? And yes I’ve checked.”

“It’s probably cause of how my Uncle Jeralt raised him,” Leonie piped up. “After Byleth’s mother died when he was still young they only focused on stuff that matters, I guess. It also explains why he’s so deadpan all the time. He didn’t get much in the way of emotional warmth growing up. Not to say Jeralt is a bad father! He’s great!”

“You talk as if this Jeralt guy is your own dad. How do you know so much about his family anyway?” Claude inquired as he walked backward ahead the rest of the group.

“He would visit my family often when I was little. We weren’t very rich so we never had nice things. Uncle Jeralt would always bring gifts for us! He also taught me many things. In fact, he teaches self-defense here on his spare time!” The orange-haired girl told them with growing enthusiasm.

“Well I can’t wait to meet him! He sounds like a cool guy like his son!” Raphael shouted a little too loudly for the quiet environment they were in.

The coterie of Golden Deer students continued to chatter until they reached the canteen, which they found was closed except for a few small food stalls.

A dejected Raphael banged his fist on the wall. “Aw, shucks!”

“Not to worry guys. We can order food delivery. It is 2020 after all.” Hilda said as she was already opening up her phone.

“I think I’ll be going back to my room now guys. I still have food in my dorm.” Lysithea informed the group.

“I think I’m going as well… I’m very tired.” Marianne added.

“Oh come on guys, we just got to know each other! Stick around a little bit?” The class president raised his arms in a sort of plea.

As much as Claude and Hilda asked them to stay, the rest of the Golden Deer found one reason or another to break up the party for that night. Lysithea was feeling just as tired as Marianne and wanted nothing but to retire for the night, even though it was only around 7 pm. After departing from the group, she quickly made her way back to her dorm on the first floor of the student quarters building. Her parents arranged for her butler to prepare everything she needed while she attended classes for that day – one of the perks of having a well-off family. 

After getting her key from security, she unlocked the door to her room, dropped her shoulder bag off to the side and plopped onto the bed.

_Sighh…_

It was only the second day, so why did she feel so tired already? Despite that, a small part of her felt energized. She had already made a bunch of new friends and the lesson Byleth gave was quite intriguing. Her thoughts lingered on the senior student.

_I guess I wouldn’t mind learning more subjects with him._

She had only hoped that he would teach the other social studies topics with the same amount of interest and capacity. After laying her face flat down on the bed for several more moments, Lysithea raised herself from the mattress and readied herself for a shower.

* * *

Lysithea finished removing the towel wrapped around her hair above her head and propped herself back on the bed. She then took out her laptop from her shoulder bag and placed it on her lap while leaning back against the wall. As she waited for it to fully boot up, she tried to recall Byleth’s full name. She had only glanced at it for a few seconds when looking at Hilda’s phone. _Byleth… what was it again?_

She opened up Crestbook and typed his first name in the search bar. No hits.

 _Right. Byleth Eisner._ She recalled Leonie mentioning his father by Jeralt Eisner during one of her inputs in the tutoring lesson earlier.

She typed in Byleth Eisner and there were no results either.

Lysithea then tried searching in Intelgram and to no avail as well.

_Guess Hilda was right after all. He doesn’t have social media._

The white-haired student wasn’t the most avid user of social media either, but she understood its usefulness so she had a few online profiles. Other than that, they were simple ways to pass the time. She proceeded to grab a plate of cake from her mini-fridge and opened up OrbTube to watch cats doing chemistry.

* * *

Around thirty minutes from Garreg Mach, Byleth had just arrived home. He parked the family car in the garage and killed the engine as he took the keys out. He had the option of staying at a complimentary place for free at Garreg Mach for all Jeralt has done for the institution, but he preferred coming home.

Jeralt was sitting on the sofa watching television when he saw Byleth open the front door, placing the car keys in a bowl on a nearby shelf.

“Hey kid. Back from teaching the brats? How’d that work out for you? ”

“Yes. It went better than I expected.” Byleth responded calmly.

“I’m glad to hear that. Dinner’s on the table. I’ve already eaten so go ahead.” Jeralt turned his head and retuned his eyes to the TV program, where he was watching a sports game.

Byleth saw a meal prepared for him and quickly ate it before heading up to his room. Usually when Jeralt would come home later due to working, he would only have takeout for dinner. 

Upon entering his room, Byleth took off his hoodie and placed it on his chair. His room was plain save for a few medium-sized posters on the walls and the occasional item here that were mostly gifts from other people. Growing up he didn’t have much interests, but he did gain a few over time. Byleth is particularly interested in learning new skills, things related to history (including medieval warfare and the like), martial arts, psychology, and more recently, helping others learn as well.

He sat on his wheeled chair and stared at the ceiling for a bit, reflecting. His thoughts went back to the events that occurred during the day. More specifically, after his classes ended – the time he spent teaching the group of Golden Deer students. Byleth had helped tutor a few students here and there in the past, but never this many all at once. It was certainly going to be a challenge. Yet at the same time, it was somewhat exciting. Excitement. That was an emotion that was rare to him; he rarely ever got excited over things and it took things of great significance to make him feel truly happy. The fact that he was able to have a decent teaching experience with the group, despite a few hitches, was much better than what he expected.

He swiveled around on his chair and turned on his PC. Occasionally, he would play video games but that endeavor was primarily meant to pass the time. As he watched the monitor light up, his thoughts continued to think on his new underclassmen students. In particular, there was one student that caught his attention. The one with silky white hair named Lysithea was a bit abrasive towards his teaching style at first, but she eventually engaged in the discussion cordially along with the others. He could tell she was intelligently gifted as her answers stood out among her peers. Aside from that, he noticed that throughout the lesson she peculiarly would fixate her gaze on him for extended periods of time. Byleth internally shrugged. _Weird._


	4. Nighttime at Garreg Mach

Nearly two school days had gone and passed by quickly after Byleth’s initial lesson. The students were able to experience more of the subjects that were a part of Garreg Mach’s curriculum, including a very tiring P.E. session on Wednesday afternoon with Alois as the coach, followed by a review of psychology in Byleth’s tutoring class. Now, Lysithea and her friends were currently in the middle of their last Thursday session: a subject detailing the teachings of Seiros, taught by the headmaster of the school herself, Madame Rhea.

Lysithea was never one for religion. Not necessarily because she was anti-establishment or because she disliked the teachings, but it just never interested her and she had rather used the time for learning other things.

“The Goddess Sothis provides the land sustenance, and all that it yields is a gift from her. So whenever we harvest the creations of nature, we should always remember to pray and thank the Goddess.” Madame Rhea spoke with a soothing voice that would calm anyone who heard it, but it had an underlying air of firmness to it as well.

Again, Lysithea found herself almost dozing off. If it wasn’t chemistry, then it was hard for a subject to grab her interest. Then again, she was starting to look forward to Byleth’s classes as well. Something about them were more exciting than her usual daily schedule.

When the Golden Deer gang met up with their senior student tutor in the usual location, they learned that today was going to be a session on Mathematics. A revelation that was met with a collective groan from most of the students, except for Lysithea. Since she was a math prodigy, she had no problem learning the subject.

Byleth then had them learn practical uses of the math equations they were learning. He guided them through each step and made sure to engage them by asking if they understood how he arrived at a certain answer. It also helped that he used examples based on what each student was interested in.

After a certain point in the lesson, Byleth informed them of a new way of tutoring that he intends on implementing – one that involves one-on-one instruction sessions to help them on their weaknesses and improve on their strengths. He asked them whether they would rather use up regular tutoring time and take turns or to have it after the lessons but only for a couple students. In the end, the group agreed on both options being viable depending on what they felt like during the week.

‘One-on-one tutoring sessions huh?’ Lysithea thought as she cupped her chin. ‘Those could be useful for the classes I’m having trouble with.’ 

Though there was something about the idea of learning alone with Byleth that gave her an odd feeling. Was it nervousness? Whatever it was, it didn’t bother her too much and the emotion was relegated to the back of her mind.

“Private instructing will begin tomorrow. I have to take care of some things this evening.” Byleth said, rubbing the the back of his head.

As much as the group of Golden Deer classmates wanted to hang out after the class, they were all exhausted by the two days’ worth of activities and said their goodbyes to each other. Lysithea on the other hand, wanted to continue studying the next chapter of economics in preparation for the next day. The subject was already quite difficult, contrary to Professor Anna’s cheerful demeanor. She headed for the library with her laptop tucked underneath her arm.

She found a cubicled spot and put her laptop underneath the desk, bringing out her economics textbook. _Chapter 3: Supply and Demand._ Lysithea tried to begin reading in earnest, but found it difficult. Why was it getting hard to keep her eyes open? It was only several minutes of absent-minded reading before her head was slumped on the open pages and she was slumbering away.

When she came to, she noticed almost all of the students that were in the library were gone. Actually, she couldn’t make out if anyone else was actually still there with her. She recalled the library was open at all times for students, but with the caveat that there would be no one to watch them after late hours.

_Eeeep!_

A jolt tingled down her spine. Despite all her bravado and touting of her being mature, she still had one weakness that remained from childhood: a striking fear of ghosts and being alone in the night time. She quickly put the thick economics book in her bag and hurriedly exited the library, almost sprinting.

She dashed through the school corridors and into the night air. It was only when she was three-quarters the way to her room when she realized she forgot an important item. Her laptop was still under the desk. Upon realizing this, Lysithea groaned and mentally scolded herself. She turned around in place slowly, dreading having to go back all the way. Running away without thinking was one thing, but now that she was looking back at the large faculty buildings shrouded in the night’s darkness, it felt a lot more foreboding to be out here alone.

“Lysithea?” A voice suddenly passed through the air of silence surrounding her.

The girl looked to the side and saw a figure emerge from under the shadow of one of the tall trees that littered the campus.

“AAAAAH! G-Ghost!” She shrieked, taking a step back before seeing who the figure was and trying to regain her composure. “Wait a minute. You’re not a ghost... Tutor Byleth? Haha… w-what are you doing out so late?”

“I had to help Professor Hanneman with some errands. It took longer than I expected and we just finished. And just call me Byleth.” responded Byleth with no reaction towards her initial shock. “Moreover, I could ask you the same question.”

“O-oh! I was just on my way to the library. You see, I was studying and I fell asleep. When I woke up, I left and I forgot my laptop there.” She said, wondering to herself why she had to mention the last two parts. Byleth would surely think of her as foolish. Wait, now that she thought of it, she didn’t have to be alone if she asked him to accompany her…

“I see. Well I won’t get in your way. Good evening, then.” He said while giving her a nod.

“W-wait! I er… um... thought it would be nice if I could talk to you on the way to the library… about school subjects! And to be perfectly clear this has nothing to do with my nonexistent fear of ghosts.”

Without hesitating, Byleth replied. “Sure, I don’t mind.”

“Great! Shall we?”

Lysithea was relieved that she found someone to be with her so that she wouldn’t have to walk back to the library alone. Yet, she felt slightly embarrassed and shy to have been so straightforward about it – especially since it was with her tutor that she still had yet to know much about.

The two of them started walking on the path to the library that Lysithea had recently run through. After a few minutes, Byleth broke the silence.

“Lysithea. You mentioned that you wanted to talk about your school subjects. Was there anything in particular you wanted to discuss?”

Lysithea surprised by the sudden end of the quiet air. “Yes… Um… I wanted to ask uh… What do you think of my understanding of the subjects so far?”

  
“Well it’s only the first week and I’ve only met you guys exactly three times. I can’t give an accurate assessment. Though I do have to say that I noticed you have an aptitude for learning that is higher than the others in the group. You are also able to answer my questions better than Raphael, for example.” He replied honestly.

Lysithea felt a small wave of satisfaction wash over her. She was no stranger to receiving praise for her academic prowess, but hearing it from the senior student felt different somehow.

“Oh, well thank you! I do try my best. The others seem far more interested in having fun than studying honestly.”

Byleth shrugged. “They… are an enthusiastic bunch. Even though sometimes their enthusiasm can take their attention elsewhere.”

“Mhm. By the way, I thought you went home every day. Are you sure you don’t want to get back before it gets too late?” She asked, while turning her head to look at him.

Then she realized that was a weird question to ask. She hit herself mentally for not thinking thoroughly before she spoke. Byleth never told them whether or not he stayed at Garreg Mach or if he went home, and she had only found out from watching him get in his car before driving away.

He raised an eyebrow slightly, then answered. “No, it’s fine. As a token of appreciation for my father, Garreg Mach Academy provides free lodging for my family. My sister and I are able to spend the night here whenever we have to stay late.”

“I didn’t know you had a sister. And, if you don’t mind me asking, what did your father do for this school anyway?” Lysithea said as she widened her eyes in surprise.

“Never saw the need to mention her.” Byleth paused for a moment before continuing. “Back when my father was still only an agent for the FBI* he was an integral part in solving an especially difficult case regarding missing students in Garreg Mach Academy. He caught the culprit and brought him to justice. He continued to help them on other occasions, and he now teaches self-defense here when he has days off from work.”

“Wow, I can see why Leonie admires him so much.”

“He’s alright.”

After Byleth said that, there was a momentary silence as the pair arrived at the library.

“So where did you leave it?” Byleth asked while scanning the room.

“Right… here.” Lysithea walked over to where she was studying and pulled her laptop out from under the desk.

“Great. Well, I suppose that means we’ll be parting for the night. Unless you had any other questions for me?”

“W-wait! Um… I still have more things to ask you! We should start walking back to the dorms while we talk.” She frantically waved about.

Byleth nodded and they started to head back the direction they came from. Lysithea struggled to think of a topic of conversation. She had to at least have him accompany her until they were near the students’ living quarters, and she couldn’t let him know that she was keeping him because she was scared to be alone.

“S-so… I noticed you don’t have any social media profiles, why is that?”

“I never saw the need for them. Though if you and the others feel that I should make them, I will for convenience’s sake.”

“Yes, you should! I could teach you.” Lysithea felt odd at the prospect of helping her senior when she was the one that was supposed to be tutored. She didn’t notice, but her cheeks felt a little warm.

“That would be nice of you.” Byleth said before more silence fell between the two. “Was there anything else you wanted to ask?”

Running wires through her brain, Lysithea came up short with thinking of something else to say.

“……OK, I confess. I AM scared of ghosts! This school is unnerving to me at night. It’s huge and it’s dark and… it’s frightening being alone! So could you at least walk me to where you found me and -”

She turned her head and realized that they were in the same spot where she first realized she had left her laptop, which meant the dormitories were only a short walk away.

“Oh. Well I guess I can make the rest of the way on my own. Thank you for… answering the important questions I had on the way to the library. I’ll be fine now.” Lysithea hastily uttered.

“It was no problem, Lysithea. I should thank you as well for the conversation. I haven’t spoken that much to anyone in a while.” Byleth expressed with the same monotone voice.

Come to think of it, he didn’t seem to be one for extended talks outside of his tutoring sessions. She felt flattered somehow. Moreover, Lysithea herself hasn’t conversed much with anyone one-on-one recently either. She didn’t have much friends from her old school and talks with Hilda usually involved Marianne or someone else from the Golden Deer taking part.

“Ah,well, I'd better be on my way now. Good night!”

With that, the two of them left for different directions. Once Lysithea was back in her room, she laid flat on her back horizontally on her bed.

_Byleth is a nice guy._

She reflected for a bit and was soon fast asleep.

* * *

*Fodlan Bureau of Investigation


	5. Instruction

The next day, Lysithea was already looking forward to another tutoring session though she wasn’t exactly sure why. She told herself it was because of her desire to learn. Unfortunately for her, Hilda informed them that Byleth said he did not teach on Fridays, by virtue of Fridays usually being used for other things after school. It was a matter of convenience for both him and any of his students.

Which was disappointing to Lysithea as she usually had no plans on Friday anyway and she had gone through the trouble of dressing up with a nice dark-purple cardigan since the students were allowed to wear casual clothes instead of the usual uniforms on Fridays. The only thing of note that ended up happening that day was that at their last class session they were told to choose class electives. Apparently the options were: self-defense, cooking, arts, music, as well as design and information technology. Since Lysithea was quite fond of baking, she figured cooking class was the best option.

There she met the student who was of a similar height named Annette. They acquainted themselves with each other in chemistry class last week and were able to quickly bond over their shared love for the subject and their interest in studying. When they caught sight of each other again in the elective class, Annette was quick to verbalize her joy. _So at least one thing went well that day._

When Monday came around, Lysithea was only that much eager to get on with her studies. An excitement that was met with the contrasting tone of her subjects for that day – history, economics, and psychology. Professor Hanneman wasn’t the most scintillating educator and economics was difficult, but at least she would meet up with her friends again after classes for Byleth’s tutoring lesson. Manuela was a slightly more engaging lecturer than her male colleagues, but she had the tendency to trail off topic when discussing her own experiences.

“Man, Ms. Manuela’s tangent on her ex being a sleazebag went on for quite a while huh?” said Claude as they exited the class.

“Yeah, it’s totally different from how Tutor Byleth taught us psychology!” Hilda added cheerfully.

“Speaking of, I wonder how he’s going to do the private instructing he talked about implementing today.” Lysithea curiously thought aloud to the group.

“Who knows? Why, you interested in some one-on-one time with our senior Liz?” Claude remarked with a playful tone as he did one of his usual winks.

“H-hey! I’m only wondering for the sake of my studies! And don’t call me that!” the much shorter student replied, clearly flustered.

“Whatever you say, princess.” Claude turned around and continued walking ahead of the group to their destination.

Lysithea balled her hands into fists and stomped on after him, while the rest of the group either just smiled or shook their head at Claude.

“I suppose today I’ll be taking turns instructing each of you, so that you have a better understanding of how it will work.” Byleth said in his usual monotone as he scanned the students in the room.

“Anyone want to go first?”

Lysithea shifted in her seat, ready to volunteer. Before she was able to say anything however, Lorenz cleared his throat and spoke up.

 _“Ahem._ I shall go first, if the rest of you don’t mind. I wish to see how best to build on my strengths and weaknesses after all.” He expressed candidly.

The snow-haired student slumped back into her seat. Guess she would have to wait a bit longer for her turn. She turned her head to the side to look at Ignatz sketching something on his book.

“What are you drawing, Ignatz?” She asked out of boredom. Lysithea peeked over and saw a pencil draft of a long haired woman with regal accessories.

Ignatz, surprised at the sudden interest, tried to cover his book away from the girl by lifting the other half. “O-oh! I’m just practicing… Not anything in particular really,” he muttered before letting go of the cover to show her. “… Alright you’ve seen it anyway. I was just trying my hand at drawing a depiction of the Goddess Sothis. I’ve seen many artworks and read different descriptions, but no two are exactly the same.” 

Lysithea nodded. “Well for what it’s worth, it’s a good drawing. You definitely have talent.”

“Why, thank you Lysithea. I didn’t an expect a compliment from you.”

“Hm? Why’s that? Do I seem incapable of giving compliments?” her tone grew increasingly irritated.

“Huh? No! It’s just… I don’t think I’m very good.” Ignatz replied as he fixed his glasses.

“Well that’s just immature of you Ignatz. You should learn to accept praise from your peers and to know when it’s genuine.”

“Yeah I agree!” Raphael interjected, “You’re really good Ignatz! Plus I think you’re real smart.”

“Though it does make me wonder, do you have any aspirations being in Garreg Mach Academy? Why are you joining these lessons? All I see you do is draw, even during lectures.”

Ignatz turned his gaze away from his burly friend and his female classmate to stare at his desk. “Well, to be honest with you Lysithea, if you’re asking about my future plans, I don’t really know what I want to be in the future. My parents sent me to Garreg Mach in the hopes that I’d become a successful lawyer or businessman… but I’m not so sure if I’m capable. As for why I joined tutoring, Raphael and I found out from Leonie and I figured it was a good idea.

“Yeah, I’m good at sports but when it comes to studying… my head has trouble understanding all the words they throw at us.” Raphael said as he put his hand on his much smaller friend’s shoulder.

“Well, you two are lucky then that Tutor Byleth is willing to teach us underclassmen.” Lysithea responded as she shifted her line of sight to view Lorenz appreciating an insight given by the older student.

“I’ve come to understand a great deal.” She heard him say from that side of the room.

The three continued to chat while Leonie tried to get Marianne to talk more and Claude moved around bugging everyone in intervals.

Eventually, when Lorenz was finished singing praises of himself, Lysithea volunteered to be next to be tutored. She walked up to where Byleth had just finished teaching Lorenz, and he gestured for her to sit down. She still felt a little sheepish after what had transpired last Thursday, especially because of how she revealed some of her fears to him so ostensibly.

Without wasting any time, Byleth started. “So Lysithea, I want to begin by asking you what you think your weakest subjects are as well as the subjects you believe you have potential in.”

“It’s only been a week, but so far I’m having the most trouble with psychology and philosophy. Those two just seem to have no real answers to the questions. As for what I’m good at, well there’s chemistry and math –“

Byleth interrupted her. “I’m aware that you excel in chemistry and math. I believe you don’t need any help in those two subjects. However what I am asking for, are the subjects you have yet to succeed in, but believe you can use your strengths in to your advantage.”

Lysithea put her hand to her chin and thought for a moment before replying. “Um… I suppose I can see myself doing better in Economics. It involves technical knowledge and I believe I can handle the mathematic portions of it just fine.”

“That’s good. With enough practice, you may find yourself doing as well in economics as you do in Chemistry. Now, which subject would you like help with first?” Byleth questioned.

“Well I do have an assignment for philosophy due Wednesday morning. Mr. Seteth seemed quite strict as well, so I want to have a good impression on him.”

“I see. What’s the assignment?”

The freshman took out her phone to open up her homework reminder for the class. It read:

_Class: Consider the two scenarios of the trolley problem we discussed in class. What action would you take in the first, and based on what philosophical view? In the second? (Hint: Utilitarianism vs Deontology)_

He stared at the assignment for a while then handed the phone back to Lysithea. “Interesting.”

“Interesting?” Lysithea said with a confused expression.

“Yes. It’s interesting, but it’s very simple.” Byleth paused as if to give her time to think about it then continued. “Here’s my advice for you. For classes like this, you are able to come up with any answer so long as you have reasonable backing. And you use that reasonable backing to justify your answer. The same is true with psychology.”

“Okay, so how would I apply it here? Ah. Perhaps you mean I can choose to kill the five people or the one person and it wouldn’t matter so long as I justify it with a philosophical standpoint?” Lysithea grew more enthusiastic the more she felt she was obtaining useful knowledge.

Meanwhile, Byleth remained indifferent in his composure. “Correct. Now, I assume the first scenario in this case is the one where you can pull the lever to divert the trolley to kill one worker instead of five, and the second scenario is the one where you have to push a fat individual to his death in order to stop the trolley from killing the five people on the tracks. What would you choose in either situation?”

“That’s… exactly right actually. I’m surprised you remember, since it’s been three years since you’ve had this class.” She was already somewhat impressed and looked at him inquisitively. “I haven’t given it much thought as to what I would do in the situation honestly. Both seem to end up badly.”

“Like I said, we are to practice your ability to attach reasoning to your arguments. You can choose any option and we’ll try to explain it.” He explained plainly.

“Well in that case I guess for the first situation I would divert the trolley to kill the one person. It is better that only one dies instead of five.”

“Good. Now which concept would go better with that decision? Utilitarianism or Deontology?”

“I recall Mr Seteth telling us that Utilitarianism is the greatest good for the greatest number. Since we are saving five people at the cost of one, I believe that ideology would be apt.”

The final year student continued to tutor Lysithea for around ten minutes, as he needed time to help the other Golden Deer as well. Even so, those ten minutes felt highly valuable to Lysithea as she had received useful insights for her assignment and future assignments. She sat back down satisfied, that is, before Claude started egging her about whatever she learned. The girl just rolled her eyes.

After everyone had their turn – with Hilda last because she kept insisting others go first – they finished the tutoring session for the day. Before they parted with Byleth however, Lysithea went up to him to ask for something.

“Um… Byleth?” Lysithea asked without looking him in the eyes. “I was wondering how to contact you. You know, uh, if I had any questions.”

“Of course. You can have my number.” He said as he quickly wrote on a notepad and handed the piece of paper to her.

Hilda overheard Lysithea’s question and sauntered over to her.

“Lysithea, you know you could have just asked me right? I thought you knew I had Tutor Byleth’s contact.” She chuckled.

Lysithea’s feet turned inward and a light pink flecked her cheeks.

“I forgot, okay? And besides, it felt more polite to ask directly. I see no problem in what I did.” She replied defensively.

Byleth expression did not change to the two girls’ interaction. “Yes. Perhaps it would be more effective to create a group chat?”

“Good idea Byleth! I’ll make it then.” Hilda responded with cheer.

“Now if you would excuse me girls. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” He said as he departed from the room.

* * *

That evening, Lysithea was procrastinating on her studies. She was trying to focus on finishing her history assignment due the next day which was supposed to be easy, but she was having trouble finding the motivation. Looking to the side, she saw her phone lying on her bed and scooted over to pick it up.

Lysithea turned the screen on and remembered that she added Byleth’s contact using the paper he gave her earlier. Suddenly, she felt like texting him to ask a question on her assignment. However, the truth of the matter was she didn’t really need any help. She just felt strangely compelled to contact him.

  
She stared at his profile and hesitated for a moment before sending him a message.

  
_Hello. This is Lysithea from your tutoring class. Is it alright with you if I ask you questions here?_

Suddenly she worried if it was odd for her to message him so soon after they had just had class. There was also the weird anxiety of not knowing whether or not Byleth would reply. Just as she was pondering these things, she heard a ping from her phone.

_Hello Lysithea. Yes, you can ask me questions here and message me for anything else you need._

‘Anything else? Like what?’ Lysithea shook her head. She was overthinking things, as usual. Though she had to admit she felt relieved, and if a little bit excited, to receive a message from her tutor.

_Great! So about this history assignment…_

The two went on to converse in a string of messages sent to each other, even trailing off topic to talk about other things such as their experiences at school, their friends, and so on. They continued to do so late into the night, and didn’t stop until Lysithea fell asleep exhausted, with her phone still in her hand.


	6. Blue Sea Star

The week went by uneventfully and each day of classes could hardly be differentiated from the next. Surprisingly, the highlight of Lysithea’s days occurred after school. Be it due to the casual get-together with her Golden Deer friends, or being able to actually learn in a useful way with Byleth, the tenth-grader often found herself staring at the clock til it reached 4:30 pm each day.

On Friday however, there were two noteworthy announcements. The first was to be expected and was met with a less-than-enthusiastic reception by the members of the Golden Deer class; it was the reveal of their midterm dates. The other announcement was something much more interesting. Apparently, after midterms the three homeroom classes were to participate in an event called the Battle of the Lion and Eagle - a week-long competition of sorts that would pit the Three Houses against each other for fun and a tad of competitive rivalry.

Needless to say, the class was continuously abuzz with excited chatter every time they had a break from class, talking about what they thought they upcoming homeroom challenge was going to be like.

“Oh, I wonder what we’re going to be competing in? In any case, I’ll do everyone a favor and sit back when the time comes.” Hilda, as usual, worried about the amount of effort required for the event.

“Come on now Hilda, I’m sure for an event like that we’ll need all hands on board.” Claude said in a such a way that it was hard to decipher whether he was being sincere or playful.

Lorenz cleared his throat, interrupting them.“In any case, I would advise you direct your worries toward something more pertinent than a week of frivolities - they did just announce our midterms as well, mind you. Though I admit I will do my best to uphold my family’s honor when the time comes for such an occasion.”

“I for one agree with Lorenz. We should be focusing our efforts on passing these midterms. This is our first semester at Garreg Mach after all; we have to anticipate them more than the exams we’re used to.” Lysithea chimed in, sounding full of conviction.

“It sounds like you want to increase the amount of study sessions we have… looking forward to spending more time with our dear final year friend?” Seeing the venomous look Lysithea shot him, Claude quickly added, “Relax, I’m kidding”.

Eventually, the conversations died down as they continued their classes for the day, and their minds turned to the present. It was Friday, and the Golden Deer members wanted to do something fun for once. Claude suggested they all go bowling, but the others weren’t too thrilled about the idea, especially Hilda who complained at the thought of having to do a physical activity for fun. After some time, they settled on the simple idea of eating out at a restaurant. It was the only thing that everyone in the group could agree on, given the inoffensive nature of it.

“I suppose a night out at a fancy restaurant sounds like an adequate use of my time. Though I worry about the company…” Lorenz said with a slightly hesitant tone.

“Um, I don’t think we’d be going to any restaurant _you’re_ thinking of Lorenz. Some of us can’t afford to spend money on those fine dining locations, you know. Not talking about me in particular, but…” Hilda trailed off.

“I.. I’d have to agree with Hilda. I think a more common restaurant would be nice to eat at.” Ignatz added, hoping to not have to spend too much of his allowance in one outing.

Before the Golden Deer gang could continue to bicker once more about what restaurant they wanted to go to, Claude interrupted them with an idea he had.

“Hey! Why don’t we invite Teach? Call it a guess, but I don’t think he’s got any plans, and I think we’re overdue to give him some fun after all he’s done for us.”

This might have been the first proposal by Claude to not have been questioned or outright rejected by the others, seeing as how they seemed to enthusiastically agree with him.

 _‘Inviting Byleth? Well... that doesn’t sound like the worst idea in the world.’_ Lysithea thought to herself.

Leonie placed her hands on her hip and spoke. “Well, it’s settled then. So who’s going to be the one to invite him? I don’t mind, being his cousin and all.”

“Erm..” was the sound that came from Lysithea.

“Yeah you should do it, Leonie. I wouldn’t mind either, but I think he’s tired of me always being the one to contact him for things.” Hilda as usual, took the initiative to reply.

A low grumbling noise emerged from the direction of Raphael, who then clutched his stomach, indicating that it was the perpetrator. “Sorry guys, I just can’t wait for all the food we’re gonna eat!”

“Oh Raphael…”

* * *

Byleth was having his last class for the day when he received a notification on his phone. It was from his cousin Leonie. It wasn’t the strangest thing ever to get message from her, considering she would occasionally talk to him about family matters (or to bother him asking about his father).

This time however, the subject of her text was different. She was asking whether or not he wanted to join “the gang” on an evening eating out at a restaurant. She also _highly_ suggested that she didn’t want to take no for an answer.

After a moment of reflection, Byleth decided that there was no harm in it and let Leonie know that he accepted her invitation. It’s needless to say that on the other side of the phone she and her friends were elated and very surprised by his response. So when class ended for both grades, Byleth quickly met up with his underclassmen students. Or, more accurately, they rushed to meet him moments after he stepped out of his classroom. In the midst of all their excitement by virtue of meeting their favorite tutor and finally deciding on a place to eat, Byleth interrupted them.

“How are we going to get there?"

To his surprise, the others went quiet and Claude moved his hand to scratch the back of his head. “Heh.. that’s the thing Teach, we were hoping you would drive us. I mean I would offer but, none of us have a license yet.”

“Sure,” he responded.

A mixture of different cheers erupted from the students, from hoorays to fist pumps into the air accompanied by ‘yeah!’, all of which were filled with the same excitement.

Lysithea, who was similarly enthusiastic about the situation, realized something.

“Wait, how are we all going to fit?”

“…”

* * *

After trying and failing to fit nine people into Byleth’s SUV, the gang decided it was best for one half to go with Byleth while the other four took a Warp. They then used a process of random elimination to choose the groups and the results had Byleth, Claude, Lysithea, Marianne, and Ignatz in one car while Raphael, Leonie, Hilda, and Lorenz had to order the Warp. Of course, the ones going with Byleth took the courtesy of waiting for their order to arrive before they left.

_In Byleth’s car_

“Hey let’s turn on the radio!” Claude remarked from the shotgun seat. He reached his hand out and pressed a button on the panel to switch it on. Pop music began blaring out of the car’s speakers.

Lysithea slightly jumped in her seat from the sudden sound and grimaced. “Claude, would you turn that down!?”

“Okay, Liz.” he replied before turning to the driver. “So Teach, you know where the place is, right?”

“Yes. My family and I used to eat there often.” Byleth said as he made a turn.

The place they were headed was called the Blue Sea Star restaurant, named after one of the famous celestial bodies that hung over the Fodlan sky. It was thought by the religious to be the home of the Goddess. On the ground, it was also home to one of the most popular restaurants in Leicester territory, attracting both young and old from all over.

“I’ve never been, personally. My parents don’t like to eat out often since we have our own chef at home and all.” Lysithea commented, partly realizing that might have sounded a bit pompous.

Ignatz spoke as well from the middle of where the three were seated. “I’ve only been there once. I think my parents go there sometimes, but I opt to stay at home most of the time. What about you, Marianne?”

“Um.. well…”

_In the Warp car_

“I simply cannot believe that _this_ is the option I was resigned to. How ungainly! And to think I have to share it with you three.” Lorenz grumbled his discontent, clearly unhappy with the whole situation.

Hilda punched him playfully on the shoulder. “Oh lighten up will you Lorenz? This is going to be fun! It’s our first official hang out with everyone!”

“Yeah, Hilda’s right! It’s gonna be great cause we’re gonna talk a lot and eat awesome food!” exclaimed Raphael, his voice reverberating around the relatively small car.

From her seat in the front, Leonie turned her head and glowered at them. “Will you three keep it down a little? You’re going to make the poor driver lose his mind.” She turned to talk to the man driving the Warp. “Sorry about that.”

“Ah don’t worry about it Miss. It’s good to be young isn’t it? I recommend you have all the fun you want while you still can.” He replied in a low voice.

“Oh we will for sure!” Hilda declared.

* * *

After about 15 minutes or so, the two cars eventually reached their destination. While the Warp crew was dropped off at the front of the restaurant after they paid the driver, the ones in the Byleth mobile pulled up into the almost-full parking space. They soon met up with the others who were waiting in front of the large ‘Blue Sea Star’ sign. The Blue Sea Star restaurant was a wide, two-story building that had bright open windows on all sides and emanated the clamor of loud chatter and movement inside.

“Hey y’all! How was the ride?” Hilda approached them gleefully.

“It was fine. Looks like you guys had fun!” Claude said, eyeing the distressed Lorenz walking after Hilda. He simply shot back a glare.

“Boy am I hungry! Let’s get inside already!”

As they prepared to head in, Lysithea stayed close to Marianne and Byleth, secretly hoping she would get to sit next to him.

Once the Golden Deer made their way inside, they were met with a flood of yellow light and the sight of all kinds of people already crowding the restaurant. Ignatz then worryingly asked them whether they had a reservation or not, to which Claude told him to relax because he knows the owner.

The nine of them made their way upstairs since the bottom floor was full, and as they approached one of the large tables, they spotted some surprising yet familiar faces. Another group was situated at the only other table that could fit ten people, with the daughter of the former prime minister of Adrestia at the center. It was the Black Eagles.

“Well, I must say it is a surprise to see you here, Claude.” The brown-haired girl in expensive, but simple clothing conveyed as they approached.

“I was going to say the same thing about you, Edelgard.” Claude said in response, still smiling. “Gotta say, I didn’t take you for one to go out to eat with friends much.”

While the Golden Deer gang greeted the students from their rival house, Edelgard kept her gaze on Claude.

“I mean to take every opportunity I can for bonding with members of my house. A good class president must get along with her classmates after all. Especially if we want to succeed in any future events.”

“Ah, spare me the speech princess, you just like to have fun like the rest of us.” Claude winked as usual with his reply.

Edelgard showed no difference in expression, and continued in a passive-aggressive tone.“Well if you don’t mind, the rest of us here would like to continue our meal, and our private conversation.”

With that, the two groups separated and went back to their respective tables, while still eyeing each other.

“Wow, I did not expect them here. Not to be mean or anything but, aren’t they a bunch of prudes?” Hilda mentioned as soon as they sat down.

“I mean most of them _are_ on the bookish side.” Claude gave his thoughts as he took a seat next to Hilda. “No offense Ignatz.”

“N-none taken.”

Meanwhile, Lysithea was simply glad that she got to sit next to Byleth like she planned, even though it was basically at the edge of the table.

“No doubt they are planning some scheme to outdo the other houses in the Battle for the Eagle and the Lion. Tsch. The faculty just announced it and already they’re planning like mischievous rodents!” Lorenz spat.

The others paused for a moment to stare at Lorenz before Claude continued talking. “Uhh... Nice metaphor Lorenz. Anyway, knowing Edelgard, that _is_ probably what they’re doing.”

A little bit further away from the conversation taking place, Lysithea tried to come up with something to talk with Byleth about. That is, until a question headed his way interrupted her train of thought.

”What do you think, Teach? Do you think they’re planning some devious scheme?”

In the short time that Byleth had known Claude, he already knew that the guy was in fact, someone who had a predilection for scheming. He chose not to point out the irony, however.

“I don’t know them. But if I were to guess, it is likely. The Battle of the Eagle and Lion is a competitive highlight for many people every year.”

“I knew it!” Lorenz said loudly, despite Byleth having zero ability to confirm or deny whether it was true.

Lysithea finally collected her thoughts and started to ask a question about midterms. “Anyway, I was thinking — ”

“Wait! We haven’t even ordered food yet!” Raphael shouted, drowning out whatever sentence Lysithea was uttering.

Hilda then called for a waiter and soon the menus were being passed out to each Golden Deer member.

Lysithea continued, “So I was just saying — “

“Man, there sure are a lot of choices! What are you guys getting? I think I’m having the tenderloin steak.” Raphael announced to the group.

“Um. I’ll have the fish and chips please.” Marianne spoke softly to the waiter.

 _Sighh._ Lysithea gave up and slumped back into her chair. Even though she wasn’t hungry, she decided to pick something from the menu that seemed good. She saw that Byleth was staring at the menu and hadn’t ordered yet.

“What are you getting Byleth? It’s hard to choose, I know.”

He paused to look at her, and she flinched upon realizing how close she was leaning over to him.

“I don’t know. It’s been a while since I’ve eaten fancy food.”

“Well I’ll help you then.” They perused the menu together for awhile before Lysithea picked one out. “I recommend the sweet honey garlic chicken. My mom used to make that at home.”

“Okay. I’ll have that one then. Thank you Lysithea.” he said and saw that Lysithea beamed sweetly.

A bit more to the center of the table, the conversation was of a different tone.

“Claude, I think you’re getting ahead of yourself.” Hilda asserted with a worried smile.

Claude had his head turned, staring at where the Black Eagles were on the other side of the room. He turned his attention back to the table. “All I’m saying is, if they’re going to start planning from now, I suggest we come up with some schemes of our own.”

“You guys, really...? Schemes?” Leonie let out, joining the conversation. “Though I do admit, I don’t like the idea of losing to them. I say we give it our all when the time comes, but we beat them fair and square!”

“Are you sure you don’t want to move closer to the middle so you can talk to them easier?” Byleth asked Lysithea.

“No I think I’m alright here, thanks.” Lysithea smirked, eliciting a small smile from Byleth. She shook her head. _Was she imagining things or did she just see her usually inexpressive senior smile?_

“Anyway, I wanted to ask you about the midterms, what do you think will be-”

Before Lysithea could even finish her question, an elegantly dressed girl wearing heeled boots sauntered over to their side of the table.

“Hi, I don’t think we’ve met. Byleth, was it?” she said in a friendly yet methodical tone. “I’m Dorothea.”

The others at the table eyed her suspiciously. They knew who she was, not only because they met in Garreg Mach, but also because she was a young rising music star who gained popularity through OrbTube.

Byleth was about to reply when Claude answered first. “Hey Dorothea, there _are_ nine of us you know. What do you want with Teach?”

She just smiled and carried on. “Oh I’m just acquainting myself with our senior — haven’t gotten the chance to introduce myself and all.”

“Hi. I’m Byleth from Batch of 2021. I tutor the Golden Deer students here.” he responded finally.

“So I’ve heard. It’s mighty kind of you to do that for them.” Dorothea stalled for a bit while she pointed one arm up to her chin, resting her elbow on her other arm which was crossed over her waist.

Lysithea was not liking where she was going with this. 

“Listen, I know you’re part of the Golden Deer house and all, but are you sure you wouldn’t like playing for the other team?” She offered with a sultry tone and a wink. “Unlike these people here, I’m sure we can… compensate you somehow.”

Lysithea felt something tug in her viscera and finally spoke up. “What is that supposed to mean?” She retorted, sounding ostensibly annoyed.

Dorothea stood unbothered. “From what I hear, you bunch aren’t even paying him. We at the Black Eagles are simply giving him a better offer. The house with the best midterm scores improve their standing not only in Garreg Mach, but of their respective territories as well.”

Byleth gave his answer before any of the Golden Deer members could react violently. “Sorry Dorothea, but I’ve already committed myself to teaching these students. If you as individual members wish to join, I might be able to arrange something.”

“Okay, but remember to let us know if you change your mind.” Dorothea voiced casually, before walking back to where the other Black Eagle members were eating.

As soon as she left, Lorenz slammed his hand on the table. “Of course! They were also planning to outdo us in the midterm examinations! Why did no one suggest that possibility?”

Lysithea groaned and planted her face on the table with a thump, just as their orders arrived.

“Awesome! Food’s here!”

* * *

“So uhm, how are you guys getting home?” Ignatz questioned the others.

After a long evening of guzzling down food, talking, and cynically scheming, the Golden Deer were about to part ways for the night, but not before the Black Eagles left first.

Lorenz, wide-eyed, looked at Byleth. “Surely you don’t plan on driving everyone home? As for myself, I’ve already called my chauffeur. Like I should have done much earlier.”

“Nah, Teach has done enough for us. I’m sure most of us can order a Warp from here.” Claude told the group.

“Don’t worry, Marianne and I live close to each other so we can take one together. Ever since we entered Garreg Mach, I found out that we’re practically neighbors!” Hilda assured everyone.

Raphael added, “Yeah, same with me and Ignatz! So we’ll go together too.”

Claude, as if counting everyone, gazed at the group. “So that just leaves little Liz here and Leonie.”

That was true. Only Lysithea and Leonie were left without means of transportation. Lysithea shifted in place. She didn’t think of this eventuality.

“Uhm… I told my parents I would be going out today, but I forgot to tell them how I would be getting home.”

Leonie piped up. “Hey, you can take a ride with Byleth and I. Right, cousin?”

“Yes. Leonie and I live nearby, so we will drop you off first.” Byleth said calmly.

Lysithea shyly agreed and the gang said their goodbyes to each other. Afterwards, the remaining three got in the car and began the drive to Lysithea’s house after she told them of the address. It was mostly a quiet ride, save for Leonie in the front seat asking Byleth about his family as usual and Lysithea directing Byleth where to go.

Some time passed and they finally pulled up to well-off neighborhood with a line of houses that indicated the people living in them were far from financially deficient. Lysithea pointed at one of the more opulent-looking ones, with a gate that had the Ordelian insignia on it. Byleth pulled up on the side of the road next to it.

“So um, this is it. I know it doesn’t look special or anything but that’s not bad is it? My house I mean.”

Lysithea couldn’t see their perplexed faces in the dark, and before they could say anything she continued.

“Anyway, I wanted to thank you, Byleth, for taking me - I mean driving me home. And you too Leonie, for putting up with it. So! Thanks for everything!”

“It was no prob-”

Upon finishing her sentence, she hurried out the car door, rung the doorbell and waved them goodbye. The gate was opened moments after by her private butler and she went inside.

_So Byleth knows where I live…_


	7. Groceries

Mr and Mrs Ordelia weren’t too happy about Lysithea arriving that late, but they were just relieved that she got home safe. She went to bed directly so her parents were only able to question her the next day. However, Lysithea only vaguely answered their questions and told them that a friend drove her home, without specifying who. Further attempts to find out were only met with prevarication on Lysithea’s part, so the Ordelians gave up.

It was now Sunday, which meant it was family day in the Ordelia household. At least, that’s what it was supposed to be. Normally Lysithea and her parents would go to see a movie or play board games, but nowadays they would each do their own thing, like sitting on the couch watching TV or playing with the cat. Of course, those two activities were done by her father and Lysithea respectively. 

“Biscuit, what do you do when I’m gone?” Lysithea asked as she lay on the bed, playing with her cat’s paws. “Don’t you get bored?”

Biscuit, obviously, could not reply because he did not possess the vocal cords, nor the sentient cognizance needed to answer Lysithea’s questions.

“Do you think people could like me? Do you even like me?” She stared into Biscuit’s eyes for a few seconds. “Hmph. It doesn’t matter anyway. I don’t need people, or anyone in particular, to like me, I just need to get good grades.”

As she was about to make Biscuit try on funny-looking headbands, her mother opened her bedroom door.

“Sweetie, it’s time for grocery shopping.”

“Mom, do I have to, really?” Lysithea rolled over to the other side of the bed. She was clearly feeling lazy that day.

“Come on dear, did I tell you we’re running out of sweets? We can buy more if you come.” Mrs Ordelia laid out in an attempt to get Lysithea’s interest.

“Okayy fine.” she said as she got up. As hard as it was sometimes to understand Lysithea, her mother could always rely on her love for sweets to entice her.

* * *

It was a 10 minute drive to the supermarket, so Lysithea used the time to listen to music in her earphones. Once they arrived, her parents got a trolley cart while she got a basket in case she wanted to get anything.

“Dear, we’ll be in the frozen foods section. You can go buy your sweets while we’re here.” 

“Yes mom. Stop making it sound like I’m a kid.” Lysithea asserted while walking away to do what her mother just said.

Now she was trying to remember which section had all the sweets. Her plan was to get the snack options first before going to the area with pastries. _Well, if she kept walking around she’d find them eventually_ , she thought. After exploring for a bit, she ended up somewhere around the fruits and vegetables sections. _Ew_. Lysithea was about to turn around and go the other direction before hearing a familiar voice.

_Wait, is that...?_

“I’m just not that interested in it anymore, dad.” the familiar voice said. No doubt about it. It was Byleth.

Peering around the corner of the aisle she was in to the left, Lysithea saw her senior and tutor with his back turned to her. Standing next to him was a taller man with dirty blond hair tied with a ponytail at the back and… a girl with the same hair color as Byleth.

“Well kid, I just can’t understand why. You used to win all those fencing competitions when you were younger.” the man who was apparently Byleth’s dad replied.

“Yeah, we used to be quite the duo. Don’t you remember?” the girl with the similar teal hair added. Lysithea surmised that she was the sister Byleth mentioned.

Lysithea then took a step back to process the situation. She’s never seen them in this supermarket before. Or maybe she just never noticed. It was a big supermarket. Her first thoughts meandered to what she was going to do - the way she saw it, she had three options. She could walk away pretending that she never caught sight of them, continue spying on them, or she could go up to them and say hi. _Never mind,_ she scratched off the last option. Walking away was tempting, as she could save herself a lot of embarrassment. However, getting to know Byleth’s family better was even more tempting. So spying it was. 

_Wait._

Was that even ethical? Wasn’t that something that stalkers did? Was it even _legal_ ? What if Byleth turned around and saw her staring at them like some sort of psychopath? Not only would he not want to tutor her ever again, he would probably report her to the authorities. Wait, wasn’t Byleth’s dad _the authorities_? Chances are, she would be arrested right then and there. As someone who prided herself on her logical thinking, she concluded that the best thing to do was to walk away before ruining her life for good.

But then again, when would she ever get an opportunity like this again? She poked her head out of the aisle to look at them again, but they had moved to the pineapple section which was further down to the right of where they were.

In order to hear their conversation, Lysithea had to creep closer. She snuck up behind the watermelon section just a few meters away from the Eisner family. Somehow she forgot that just moments ago she was worrying about spending life in jail. 

“I’ve moved on to other interests, Elyth. Maybe you could try doing the same.” As Lysithea moved into position, she could hear Byleth continue the conversation they were having

“What? I do have other interests, I’ll have you know.” asseverated his sister, who not only had almost identical hair, but a similar name as well. 

“You’re talking about that tutoring gig you’re doing? How’s that been working out for you?” Jeralt asked while holding up a pineapple to examine it.

“It’s been fine. The students may have their eccentricities, but they’re all eager to learn.”

 _Eccentricities? Surely he didn’t think that she was weird, right?_ Lysithea worried as she tried to hide behind a particularly stacked area of watermelons. 

“Hi dear, what are you doing over there? Weren’t you getting sweets?” 

Startled, Lysithea jumped and knocked over one of the watermelons, which hit the ground with a thud.

“GAAH! Mom? Dad? Don’t surprise me like that!” Lysithea scolded them as she bent over to pick up the watermelon that was luckily hard enough to not break.

“Well, we finished most of our shopping and we were on our way to get milk when we saw you here dear.” Her father explained.

“Okay, we better get going then!” Lysithea said quickly. “Forget about the sweets, we can buy them some other time!”

“But-”

“Lysithea?” the familiar voice Lysithea was eavesdropping on suddenly seemed much closer for some reason. It also called her name.

She turned around and saw that the Eisner family had finished their selection of fruits and were now walking in her direction. Byleth’s eyes were also looking in her direction.

“Eep!” Lysithea was startled for the second time in a row and knocked two watermelons over this time. “H-Hey Byleth. Funny seeing you here.” 

“Hi... indeed it is. You should be more careful.” Byleth said as he picked up both watermelons and placed them back on the booth. 

“Lysithea! What’s gotten into that’s made you so on edge?” Mrs. Ordelia chided, before turning her attention to Byleth. “Are you Lysithea’s friend? It’s nice to meet you.” 

Byleth introduced himself to her parents, while Lysithea did the same with Byleth’s father and sister, while all family members similarly acquainted themselves with each other.

“So you’re the one teaching Lysithea for free, are you? That’s very kind of you.” Mr Ordelia commended him.

“You must be the one Byleth says gives him a lot of trouble.” Elyth teased while slightly bending over to talk to Lysithea. 

The color drained from Lysithea’s face, turning it pale. “W-what do you mean? Did Byleth really say that? He wouldn’t, would he?”

Elyth let out a chuckle. “Relax, I’m only kidding. He mentions you as the studious one.” She went back to standing up straight and pat her head. “I like her.”

Byleth had been talking with Lysithea’s parents, but given the irritated side-eye he gave his sister, he likely heard and saw everything. 

“Now I remember! You’re the one who brought that notorious killer to justice!” Lysithea’s father realized after speaking to Jeralt. 

Jeralt raised his arm to scratch his forehead. “That was a long time ago. Heh… I really don’t know why that’s all anyone thinks about. I’ve done a lot of work after too.” 

“Oh I have no doubts about that, Mr Eisner. And if your son is as capable as you are, I can trust him to tutor my daughter to an effective degree.” 

Lysithea felt oddly embarrassed by what her father said and felt her cheeks redden. She shot her mother a look that said ‘this whole ordeal has been very humiliating and I want to go home now.’

“Well, it was very nice meeting you all. But we still have yet to complete our shopping.” Mrs Ordelia said, wanting to oblige with Lysithea’s wishes. “Byleth, thank you very much for tutoring Lysithea.”

The respective families said their farewells to each other, and as soon as they were a far enough distance Lysithea started speeding up her pace until the Eisners were completely out of view. _Phew_.

* * *

Back in the car, Lysithea tried to forget the embarrassing event that had just occurred. Unfortunately, her parents did not help in that department by continuing to talk about it. 

“Byleth seems nice.” Her mother commented. “Are you sure he’s fine not receiving any payment? It must be a huge headache trying to tutor all.... eight of you, was it?”

“Yes mom. We’ve tried offering to him but he just won’t accept any payments.” Lysithea explained plainly.

“I think it’s very kind of him then.” Mrs Ordelia paused. “What grade is he in?”

“Mom, I fail to see how that’s important.” Lysithea put in her earphones. 

Her father decided to give his input. “In any case, be sure not to give him too much trouble. I would hate to think my daughter is exploiting good free service.” 

Lysithea rolled her eyes. For a ten-minute ride, it sure felt a lot longer. 

* * *

The Eisner family car was filled with the sound of Elyth tapping away noisily on her phone in the back while Byleth sat in the front seat next to Jeralt who was driving.

“I guess I can see why you’d like teaching those brats kid, if they’re all as nice as her.” Jeralt said dryly as he drove over a speedbump.

“Maybe he does it so he can scout out the underclassmen.” Elyth joked.

Byleth, unamused, replied, “You know it’s for college credit, Lith. Headmaster Rhea herself even said she would write a recommendation. Besides, teaching can be enjoyable. Aren’t you leading the volleyball team filled with underclassmen?” 

“That’s completely different and you know it.” his sister said while pausing to look up from her phone. 

“Anyway, I’m graduating next year. I don’t have time for anything frivolous.” Byleth asserted.

* * *

When Lysithea got home, she changed clothes and plopped herself back on her bed to continue whatever she was doing before she was interrupted by her mother. Only this time, she took out her phone to text Annette while petting her cat Biscuit. She absentmindedly clicked to the top of her messages and typed,

_Hey, you won’t believe who I just met at the supermarket._

She received a reply immediately, saying _Oooh, who was it?_

Lysithea thought it was odd for Annette to reply so quickly because she was usually busy with who knows what. Though she wasn’t really paying attention to her phone because she was playing with Biscuit’s ears.

_It was Byleth and his family. Can you believe it? And he met my parents too, ugh._

At this point, Lysithea turned her full attention to her phone screen and noticed something weird. For some reason Annette had pink hair in her profile picture. Annette didn’t have pink hair. 

_Oh gods._ In her inattentiveness, Lysithea had been texting Hilda, not Annette. 

_Wait I meant to send that to someone else, sorry_

She fumbled as she tried to type the words on her phone. She also deleted her previous messages.

 _Too latee_ ^_^ 

Lysithea did not like the sound of that, because that likely meant Hilda had read and screenshotted everything. And before she knew it, her consternations came true as she saw a notification from the group chat the Golden Deer members had made. Obviously, it was Hilda trying to tell everyone of what she just learned. 

_Heyy, guess what Lysithea just told mee._ was the text that appeared, before Hilda went on to explain how Lysithea met Byleth’s family and how at the same time he met her parents. All while omitting the context of meeting them in a supermarket, of course.

Frankly, this was not as big a deal as Lysithea was making it, since it was just an innocent but funny piece of news Hilda was sharing. To Lysithea, however, Hilda might as well have been stabbing her in the gut and twisting the knife to let the innards out. 

As expected, Claude was the first to reply.

_Aren’t you jumping the gun a bit here, Lysithea?_ Claude texted while adding a winking emoji.

Furiously, she typed _I can explain! It was at the supermarket. Hilda’s not telling you the whole story._

_That’s quite an odd place to choose for introducing one’s parents. I myself would never have gone for that decision._

Lorenz added to the chat.

At this point in time, Lysithea was extremely grateful that they had yet to add Byleth to the group. She was not going to have fun clearing things up. In times like these, what always helped Lysithea was eating a bunch of sweets. Of course, she did not have them because she had forgotten to buy at the supermarket. 

_…_

Mrs. Ordelia heard a disgruntled cry from Lysithea’s room.


	8. Midterms and Pastries

Somehow, Lysithea managed to get through the week without her mental psyche collapsing in on itself. It was not easy however — throughout the week she had to endure a great deal of teasing from both Claude and Hilda, all while Byleth had no idea what they were going on about. Unfortunately for the Golden Deer, the time for goofing around was short-lived, because the midterms were fast-approaching. They surprisingly paid more attention in class and listened to what Byleth taught them more intently. Lysithea of course, pretended like she never met Byleth at the grocery store and continued to ask him questions like normal. 

“So what happens when both supply and demand shift?” she asked.

“The equilibrium changes depending on the direction the two curves shift. For example, if supply were to increase while demand decreases, then the price would fall drastically. Just remember to always equate the two formulas to derive the equilibrium.” Byleth explained.

Meanwhile Hilda was dozing off in one of the seats to Lysithea’s right. Economics, much like everything else, was unimaginably boring to her.

Byleth took note and called her. “Hilda.” No response. “Could someone kindly wake Hilda up?”

“Normally, please,” he added, but to no avail as Claude had already gotten up to slap her hard on the back before retreating quickly back to his desk. Hilda awoke and groaned, turning her head to look behind her to face Lorenz.

“Ow! What did you do that for, Lorenz!?” She yelled as she swung her hand to topple over the notebook Lorenz was writing on. 

“What the-! It wasn’t me, I assure you! It was the ignoble dunderhead of a class president who woke you!” Lorenz protested.

“Yeah right. Claude’s sitting all the way over there!” Hilda looked over to the direction of Claude, who was leaning back on his chair while whistling and sharpening his pencil. 

Before Lorenz could complain further, he was battered by more of Hilda’s limbs. Byleth just looked on at them, expression as unchanging as ever. His only other reaction was to reach up and massage his temples. Just because they were paying more attention now, didn’t mean they were always well-behaved. 

However, Byleth had to admit that they were making progress. Questions that some of the Golden Deer members had usually been unable to answer were now being met with some solid responses. Even Raphael got things right from time to time. Since the midterms would be the first gauge of their ability to remain in Garreg Mach Academy, everyone was taking it seriously. Well, as seriously as they could. Soon the days passed by quickly and it was only a few days before their first exam started. 

* * *

It was Thursday, and the afternoon sun had already set. Dusk enshrouded the academy while Lysithea was studying with Annette in her room. 

“Wait, so when do I use the quadratic equation again? I remember the equation, I just get confused deciding when I have to use it.” Annette asked while lying on her stomach, head propped up by her arms with her math textbook out in front of her. 

“We’ve been over this. You use it whenever you can’t find the solution by simply factorizing.” Lysithea went over from where she was seated on the bed to show Annette what she meant. 

After a while, Lysithea wanted to study another subject.

“Well that covers math. How about we move on to another subject?” She said.

“Hmm.. I have a better idea! Why don’t we take a break, Lysithea?” Annette replied joyfully.

“But our exams are soon and we've mostly only covered the subjects you have trouble with! We haven’t gone over philosophy and psychology yet.” 

“Aw you know I wanna prepare for the exams too, but we've been studying for hours already.” Annette pleaded. She quickly got up and sat upright on her mattress. “Let’s talk about something else for a while!”

Lysithea let out a small groan. “Finee. About what?” 

“Uhmm.. what about our classmates — I mean you know, do you find anyone interesting?” 

“I fail to see what you mean by that Annette, but no, I do not find anyone ‘interesting’ in class.” Lysithea answered plainly, “Some of them are nice friends, that’s all.”

Annette paused for a moment, scratching the side of her head. “How about people outside of your class? You’ve spoken highly of that senior Byleth, and from the sound of it, he seems like a really smart guy. You’ve even met his family!”

Since Annette was a good friend of Lysithea, she resisted the urge to give her an earful and just let out more groans of embarrassment.

“Why do you make it sound so weird? I’ve already explained that I didn’t plan to run into him at the supermarket.” Lysithea then tried to shift the subject of the discussion towards Annette. “Besides, you’ve been talking an awful lot about that guy Felix lately. Are you sure _you_ aren’t the one interested in someone?”

This time it was Annette’s turn to be flustered. “Wha-What are you talking about? All I’ve done is complain about him! He’s the worst!”

“You know, you’ve only ever complained about how he interrupts you whenever you’re doing something important, but you never mention what it is you’re doing at the time.” Lysithea pointed out. 

Annette tried to reply to Lysithea but what came out was unintelligible garble. After speaking some indecipherable gibberish for a while longer, she gave up and sighed. “Okay, you know what? You wanted to study Psychology right? Let’s study that then!”

Lysithea smiled at her victory.

“But I’m still not going to stop asking you about Byleth!” Annette added last, removing any trace of Lysithea’s smile.

* * *

Eventually the day of the midterms arrived, with the first exam being history. The night before had everyone in the Golden Deer gang on edge, evidenced by the barrage of messages in the group chat. Most of them were asking questions to Byleth, panicking, or just enjoying the chaos. Byleth tried his best to answer their questions in the group chat, but there was only so much he could do. Lysithea scoffed at them. If they had only studied harder beforehand, they wouldn’t have had to bother Byleth so much as the senior had his own midterms to study for. In fact, she thought them selfish. She also, however, was upset that she couldn’t text him her own share of questions due to him being occupied with the others, but she kept that to herself. One thing that was notable to her that night though, was when Byleth texted her personally wishing her good luck, even though he had already wished the Golden Deer members that in the group chat. Despite it being a simple gesture, for some reason it made Lysithea feel very warm inside.

Contrary to Lysithea’s worries, the history exam was easier than she thought. And so was the economics exam that came after. Turns out studying a lot over time along with Byleth’s tutoring had helped immensely. While the others did not express the same level of ease in completing the exams, they did mention that the way Byleth taught them had been very effective. 

This continued to be true for almost every other exam that followed that week, even though they were admittedly much more difficult than the exams that they had in their old schools. Needless to say, they were extremely grateful to Byleth for tutoring them, even though this was only midterms. The scores they would receive were a different story, but at least for now they could celebrate.

Stepping out of their last exam, Hilda cheered.

“Woohoo! That was the last of them. I’m going to take a loongg break of rewarding myself after this.” She said while stretching out her arms to the sky.

“It was quite challenging, I’ll admit.”

“Good to be free isn’t it? But our work’s not over yet.” Claude expressed to the group, puzzling the others.

“What are you talking about Claude? All our exams are finished.” Lysithea asked with a confused expression. 

“Well Leonie here told me something a few days ago. I didn’t want to inform the rest of you before we finished all of our exams.” He paused. “Apparently, Teach’s birthday is on the 20th of September. That’s a few days from now.”  
  
“A few days from now? That’s in three days!” Lysithea exclaimed. “And you’re only telling us this now?” She eyed both Claude and Leonie. 

“Hey, I didn’t want for us to get distracted from our midterms!” Claude said in protest. 

“Claude’s right. My cousin wouldn’t have wanted us to have our focus on anything else other than passing the exams. Now that we’re done, we can think of something to thank him.” Leonie explained in defense of Claude for once.

Hilda went right on in the conversation. “How about a cake?” 

“That much is obvious, Hilda.” replied Claude.

Lysithea was already thinking of ideas herself, with one of them being a cake that she would have baked herself. Unfortunately it became apparent that the Golden Deers were collectively going to give him one, so two cakes would just be weird. _But what if it’s a special cake?_ Lysithea thought. When it came to giving gifts, her ability to bake sweets was the only thing to come to mind. Besides, she’s never had to give gifts to anyone before. She hadn’t had many friends in her previous school — certainly no one she cared enough about to give a birthday gift to, so she hasn’t ever been in this predicament. Her own birthdays were something she disliked too; to her, they just signified the passage of time which brought her closer to… something she’d rather not share with anyone else. 

“Um, why don’t we each buy him something?” Marianne said quietly. “I-I’m not sure what I would get him but…”

“Good idea Marianne! That way the only thing we’d have to think of together is where we’re going to get the cake.” Hilda chirped.

Drat. That meant Lysithea had to get Byleth a gift that stood out.

“We can surprise him before our tutoring class on monday! I bet he’d be really happy about it.” Raphael voiced to the group while putting his arms over Ignatz and Lorenz’ shoulders. 

“All the same…” Lorenz muttered while removing Raphael’s arm from his person. “We’d have to prepare the room before he arrives. After all he’s done for us, I think it’s only appropriate.”

The Deers continued to chat and plan for Monday until they decided to go home, while Lysithea was picked up by her parents. She continued to think about what gift to give Byleth on Monday. Her mind was still blank when she got home and changed clothes. She had no idea what Byleth liked because none of them had bothered asking, at least she didn't. A wave of guilt washed over her at this realization.

Eventually she decided that she was still going to bake him a small cake, separate from the others, but she was also going to give him another gift to accompany it. Lysithea thought of texting Byleth and asking what he liked, but then realized how weird that would be. From the looks of it, it seemed like Biscuit was going to have to be subjected to her frustrations all evening.

* * *

Monday had finally arrived, and the Golden Deer had already known what they planned for Byleth that day - which was basically just them surprising him when he walked in the room for their tutoring lesson.

Lysithea trudged into homeroom looking much worse for wear than when she had just finished all their exams on Friday. With bags under her eyes, she looked like a shorter Marianne with white hair.

“Heyyy, it’s Liz! So you look like you spent all night thinking of a gift for Teach. What’d you get him?” Claude said, arms open wide. 

If looks could kill, Claude would be on the floor lifeless. “That’s none of your business, Claude. I don’t need to know what the rest of you got for him either.”

“Well I’ll tell you guys what I got! There was a nice shirt on sale, and I thought he could use an update on his wardrobe.” Hilda input enthusiastically. 

To Lysithea’s relief, Sir Hanneman walked into the class and commenced homeroom soon after. That meant no one else could have to ask her what gift she got for Byleth. However, she didn’t think of the eventuality of people talking to her during class.

“Psst.” Hilda whispered from beside her. “Where did you keep your gift? You can tell me what it is, I won’t tell anyone I promise.” 

“Sorry Hilda but I’m trying to pay attention.” she lied. “You’ll just have to wait til later.”

Of course when later came, Lysithea continued to avoid being asked about her gift and deftly changed the subject whenever it came up at all turns. Whatever it was, Lysithea _really_ didn’t want people to know about it. Unfortunately for her, eventually she would have to reveal it during the birthday surprise. 

The Golden Deer members quickly rushed out once their last class finished to prepare the room before Byleth arrived. Because no one had bothered to prepare a banner that spelled out ‘happy birthday’, their next best plan was to just write the words on the board while Ignatz drew a cartoony caricature of Byleth on it.

“His nose isn’t that big, Ignatz!” Leonie cried. Clearly she was feeling slightly stressed on the account that she was the only one who knew Byleth’s birthday, and was trying to make up for it.

“He’s going to be here any minute now.” Lorenz chided. “I suggest you finish whatever you people are doing.”

He turned to Hilda. “Who did you put on lookout again?”

“Don’t worry Lorenz, Marianne’s got it.” she replied while examining herself in her phone’s camera. 

“Marianne? But-” Before finishing his sentence, Lorenz was interrupted by the door opening followed by Marianne… and Byleth walking after her.

“I’m sorry, I wanted to tell you guys but I…” Marianne trailed off. 

For a moment, the Golden Deer just stared blankly at Byleth and the blue-haired girl next to him.

“Surprise!” they yelled in unison. Hilda and Claude threw confetti while Ignatz stumbled over and dropped his boardmarker at the surprise. Byleth’s reaction was to widen his eyes and slightly open his mouth in surprise, which, to him, practically meant he was absolutely dumbfounded.

“Leonie told us about your birthday Teach, and we figured we’d celebrate it, considering how much you helped us with midterms” Claude said as he walked over to lead Byleth into the room.

“This is all very unnecessary… but I appreciate it.” he replied. 

Meanwhile, Raphael brought out a large cake with two candles on the top. A slab of chocolate had the text “Happy birthday Teach!” written in icing on it.

As Hilda tried to explain to Byleth how they didn’t know what flavor he would like so they had just gotten apple coffee crumble, Lysithea was internally struggling. Even though they were about to give gifts after they sang the embarrassing birthday song, she couldn’t bring herself to do it in front of the others. She had no choice. She was going to have to ask him if she could give them to him in private.

After the Deers finished their awkward rendition of ‘happy birthday’, they were taking turns giving Byleth their gifts. Hilda excitedly took out her shirt to show him and explain her choice in fashion to him. 

“So Teach I want to tell you about the importance of this bracelet I’m giving you. My family only gives these to highly important people. If you have this then it means that you'll be respected by….” Lysithea heard Claude go on a tangent about the gift he gave, but all she was thinking about was how she was going to tell Byleth she would give her gift later. She was running out of time, as the others were moving on to give theirs too. At that point, Lysithea got up and approached Byleth after Raphael gave him a dumbbell and explained that it would help with his muscles. 

“Um.. Byleth?” Lysithea said as she walked up to him attempting to look confident. “Would it be alright with you if I give you my gift in private?”

Before Byleth could give his answer, he was interrupted as usual. “Oooh,” Hilda and Claude teased simultaneously. 

“A secret gift is it? Must be really special.” Claude smirked. 

“No,” Lysithea expressed sternly. “It’s just something I’d rather give without anyone else present.” 

“Isn’t that what a secret gift i-” 

Byleth cut Claude’s sentence short. “That’s fine, Lysithea. I don’t mind.”

Lysithea breathed a sigh of relief. That meant other people could continue showing him their gifts while she relaxed. 

That is, until everyone had already given their gifts, discussed with Byleth how their exams went, and ate his cake. The time they were supposed to use for tutoring was almost over, and soon Lysithea would have to give her gifts. After all of them walked out, preparing to wrap up for the day, Byleth thanked everyone and then struggled to fit all of his gifts in his bag. It was not long until only Lysithea and Byleth were left, since the former had been awkwardly waiting for everyone else to disappear from the vicinity.

As soon as Hilda was far enough out of earshot, Lysithea suddenly walked off somewhere around a corner hurriedly. Byleth was used to being confused, and this time was no exception. Fortunately for him, he saw Lysithea return a short while later carrying a large decorated box, with a few smaller ones stacked on top of it, in front of her.

“Anyway, here are your gifts. I made them myself, if that’s what you’re wondering!” Lysithea said somewhat indignantly. Her face, which was currently colored crimson, betrayed her tone however. Luckily for her, the orange glow of the afternoon sun slightly masked the pigment of her complexion.

“But I didn’t -”

She handed over the boxes, which were filled with beautifully adorned pastries, with one that was larger than the others.

“I didn’t know what you liked, and I knew how to bake so this is what I decided to give you. And that’s not my fault either! You didn’t make it easy for us to know!” Lysithea declared while looking to the side to avoid eye contact.

“Lysithea…” Byleth spoke. “These pastries are beautiful, and it was very kind of you to go through all that effort for me.” He paused for a moment before continuing.

“But how am I going to eat all of this…? I don’t think any one person could eat all these cakes and not… die.”

He saw Lysithea quickly become pale, so he added, “That’s why I think the best course of action would be to share the rest of these with your batch’s Golden Deer.” 

Suddenly, Lysithea’s face regained its color but her expression turned into an angry one. “No! I didn’t spend hours—I mean a bit of my time baking all of these so they could eat them! If you’re not going to eat them then I will!”

“Lysithea, wait. There’s another option. If you don’t want to share these with the rest of them, that’s fine. That just means we’ll have to share them between the two of us sometime.” Byleth said while trying to hold all of the boxes together.

Lysithea’s expression softened and her blush returned. “Together? T-the two of us? I mean, that sounds okay to me. It’s the sound decision—wouldn’t want you to die… and all.” 

“Yes, we could arrange it sometime this week over coffee or drinks.” 

“I prefer tea, actually.” 

Byleth sighed. “Tea time it is, then.”

* * *

Back in the Ordelia household, Lysithea’s mother was standing in the kitchen while scratching her head wondering where all their milk, flour, eggs, and sugar went. 

* * *

Anyway, that's the end of the chapter. Here's a poll for who you want Elyth/Byleth's sister/F!Byleth to be paired with eventually lmao: https://strawpoll.com/oy4w584q3


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